babsben.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

“More than a quarter of the contracts listed by DOGE were actually already paid, the Journal found, saving no money. For instance, DOGE listed $168,000 in savings for terminating a contract with HHS for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit. It had already been fully paid.” Beyond parody.

submitted 12 hours ago • 599 comments

Do this. Say this. 👇🏻

submitted 3 hours ago • 389 comments

🚨 BREAKING: Friedrich Merz’s conservative alliance has won Germany’s national parliamentary election, according to exit polls, as the far-right recorded its highest ever showing.

submitted 1 hour ago • 24 comments

Historian Bennett Parten discusses his new book on Sherman's March and emancipation, Somewhere Toward Freedom 🗃 @jcwe.bsky.social www.journalofthecivilwarera.org/2025/02/book...

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

Elon Musk has repeatedly misled the public about federal spending while playing a leading role in President Donald Trump’s effort to cut that spending | Fact Check

submitted 1 hour ago • 55 comments

Hegseth says firing of top military lawyers was about making sure "they don't exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens."

submitted 3 hours ago • 2079 comments

Also, they've been stripping the Postal Service down to its spare parts for years. Long lines? Fewer hours? Longer delivery times? Lost items...anyone? That's all intentional.

submitted 1 day ago • 11 comments

Why did Hegseth just fire every top military branch lawyer? What did they refuse to sign off on? A Pulitzer awaits the reporters and outlet who can tell the public.

submitted 1 day ago • 664 comments

Something is shifting. They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. (1/2)

submitted 1 day ago • 1493 comments

“What merit means to them” General Brown’s record, which Hegseth questioned for obvious reasons: www.af.mil/About-Us/Bio...

submitted 1 day ago • 430 comments

Trump was willing to stand up there for a few minutes to pretend to care about black history, but hugging the guy was a deal breaker.

submitted 1 day ago • 604 comments

One aspect of doing a political purge of the military and civil service is you can't come back in afterwards and just revert to status quo ante policies. A counter-purge becomes a necessity before you can then restore usual norms and protections. The people he's installing can't be left in place.

submitted 1 day ago • 30 comments

Rep Raskin has been great. Rep Ocasio-Cortez has been great. And Rep Frost and Rep Crockett. Senator Murphy. Maybe no one knew exactly what to do. But such people laid down a clear marker. Let’s respect these and other elected federal representatives who stood out these first few weeks.

submitted 1 day ago • 1327 comments

So they removed the black chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the middle of his 4-year tour, without cause, and they're seeking to replace him with a white retired Air Force three-star general who lacks the requisite experience as a service chief or combatant commander? Huh, how about that

submitted 1 day ago • 1997 comments

Seems legit.... We don't want to be a nation of underachieving Americans.

submitted 1 day ago • 851 comments

Side note. There are eight members of the joint chiefs. the chair is black. the CNO (navy) is a woman. the other six are white guys. chair and the cno got fired tonight.

submitted 1 day ago • 1090 comments

Medicaid is not for sale. NASA is not for sale. The Post Office is not for sale. America is not for sale. We have an obligation to resist kings. We outnumber them. And they can be overwhelmed.

submitted 1 day ago • 2435 comments

So. It has officially happened. I have been officially let go from my position at CDC. I wasn’t a probationary employee. I had stellar performance reviews every year. I’ll be ok. But please understand that many worked HARD to get into these positions and were doing great public health work.

submitted 1 day ago • 1865 comments

This x10000000000 “In other words: We, the opposition, are the majority. Take heart.” www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/they-are-a...

submitted 1 day ago • 1230 comments

i think it is cool that de facto first consul of the united states is a drug-addled maniac and deadbeat dad with a breeding fetish

submitted 2 days ago • 545 comments

Happy This Day, to those who celebrate.

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

For decades, the US government has painstakingly kept American science #1 globally—and every facet of American life has improved because of it. The internet? Flu shot? Ozempic? All grew out of federally-funded research. Now all that's being dismantled. 1/ www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/21/1...

submitted 2 days ago • 81 comments

#GoldenAgeOfAmerica 🇺🇸

submitted 2 days ago • 67 comments

The CDC has an ultra-competitive 2-year program to train "the best of the best" to lead public health labs. Most of the current class were terminated over the weekend. www.science.org/content/arti... (by @meredithwadman.bsky.social)

submitted 3 days ago • 582 comments

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene bought stocks in 10 companies earlier this month including DoD contractor Palantir and the newly anti-woke Meta, per new filing. disclosures-clerk.house.gov/public_disc/...

submitted 2 days ago • 7 comments

“UMich consumer inflation expectations for the next 5-10 years now up to 3.5% ... we haven't seen that since April 1995. The increase over the past 2 months has been the largest since February 2009.” (via Kevin Gordon)

submitted 2 days ago • 24 comments

Mark my words—He is going to try to shut down mail-in voting. When he does, we will sue and we will win. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

submitted 2 days ago • 1057 comments

If you’re wondering why I declined to talk to the NYTimes, then you haven’t been following my account for very long. They bear a direct responsibility for the current situation we find ourselves in, and I responded by laying out my position and that I would only talk to @jamellebouie.net

submitted 2 days ago • 1576 comments

Nothing abt what DOGE claims it's doing, or even what most suspect they're doing, requires anything like the current access they now have to critical data and nat sec computer systems across the federal govenrment. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/doge-...

submitted 3 days ago • 81 comments

New: DOGE's spending has been secret. No longer. My colleagues have uncovered it. www.propublica.org/article/doge...

submitted 2 days ago • 858 comments

👇🏻

submitted 3 days ago • 1371 comments

trump admin is ending Medicare coverage for telehealth in most cases on April 1. www.medicare.gov/coverage/tel...

submitted 2 days ago • 38 comments

European Parliament member 👇🏽

submitted 3 days ago • 924 comments

Here in Illinois, ten years ago we saw the consequences of a rampant ideological gutting of government. It genuinely harmed people. Our citizens hated it. Trust me – I was elected based in part on just how much they hated it.

submitted 3 days ago • 531 comments

Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, just 11 years old, “took her own life in Texas after she was tormented by classmates who threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities and have her family deported from the US, her grieving parents have said.” www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

submitted 3 days ago • 1413 comments

Okay so you know I like to remind everyone how the American immigration system has been cruel for a very long time. But loading people on flights to deport them to countries that they are not from, like Iranians to Panama, is not business as usual.

submitted 3 days ago • 86 comments

Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage.

submitted 3 days ago • 1924 comments

If you look at Elon Musk's wealth, he looks invincible. If you look at his cash position, he looks incredibly vulnerable. His empire looks like the Death Star, but Tesla stock is its thermal exhaust port. Use the force and let's torpedo that shit. www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-Im...

submitted 3 days ago • 10 comments

President Zelenskyy has been one of the greatest leaders of our time, guiding Ukraine through the darkest period of its recent history, rising up to Russia’s unwarranted aggression, being an inspiration to the Ukrainian people and ensuring that Ukraine’s voice is heard on the world stage.

submitted 3 days ago • 2872 comments

Former 🇺🇸 ambassador to Russia 👇🏽

submitted 4 days ago • 1260 comments

The root that tears apart your foundation begins as a seed of distrust, hate, and blame. The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe didn’t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.

submitted 3 days ago • 844 comments

"Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage." -- @govpritzker.illinois.gov

submitted 3 days ago • 537 comments

MTA to Feds: Drop dead

submitted 3 days ago • 114 comments

Wow: City of Clarksdale, Mississippi got a court order yesterday directing a newspaper to delete an editorial criticizing city officials -- without a hearing. Here's the TRO issuing the prior restraint:

submitted 4 days ago • 256 comments

Jamie Raskin: "Given that I was marching at age 3, you know I’m not letting any coup-plotting, election-denying, insurrection-supplying autocrat, kleptocracy, plutocrat or theocrat, or any techno-feudalist Silicon Valley broligarchs aspiring dictator, turn me around now.” Amen!!

submitted 4 days ago • 748 comments